Awakenings: SG1
by Child of Loki
Summary: The aftermath of Sam and Jack's wedding...CamVala, ElizabethJohn, and of course JackSam
1. The Morning After Is Never Easy

**Background: **This has been sitting around for awhile (like many other not posted/ready-to-be-posted fics in my SGA file). It was just an idea I had, although I am not all that familiar with the last few seasons of SG-1…I found myself wondering what if Jack and Sam had a big wedding? What if there was a huge party afterward? What would the aftermath be?

**The Stories: **I've started growing fond of Cam and Vala, although my original intention was to focus this story on John and Elizabeth (Atlantis). I couldn't decide which category a combination of both SGA and SG1 would belong, so I've decided to present this exploration (aka me playing with characters) as two companion pieces. Both will be in the exact same uni and are under the same title, one centering on John and Elizabeth (and hence posted in SGA) the other Vala/Cam (within SG1 category). Reading the companion will not be necessary to enjoy either of the stories, but is highly recommended :-)

**Uni Info: **I don't plan either fics to make specific references to episodes, but sometimes it occurs when you're writing no matter your intention. As mentioned earlier, I am not awfully familiar with the last few seasons of SG1 (although quite intimate with seasons 1-7). Also, I have only seen up through season two of Atlantis (although love it). Just so you know where I'm coming from.

**Sorry for taking so much time to explain myself, please read on, enjoy!**

**Awakenings**

The Morning After Is Never Easy

"Ohhhh," Cameron Mitchell bemoaned the cloud that had settled in around his head. His ears were plugged, his temples were throbbing, and his throat and mouth were dry. The symptoms basically spelled it out for him: _Classic Hangover_. The next step was remembering why…

Oh right, Sam Carter and General O'Neill's wedding. Well, not the wedding per se, just the twelve or so hours afterward in which much alcohol had apparently been consumed on his part.

Confirming that his memory was somewhat functional and mostly in tact, Cam checked it off his post-drunkenness hangover list and continued onto the next item: making sure you still had all body parts and usage of them. The first part to this endeavor was making contact with your nervous system, followed by opening eyes if you were bold enough to learn where you had passed out when you couldn't quite recall it.

Forcing his mind to rejoin his body brought forth a rather interesting and unexpected development. His skin was in direct contact with something besides material and there was a pressure concentrated on his chest but covering a good portion of his body. It felt like…

He opened his eyes to a mass of black hair resting upon his chest and the petite hand of a woman resting at his throat. His first conclusion was that it must have been a better night than he had remembered, although since he hadn't remembered anything of the not-going-to-bed-alone variety, Cameron supposed it wouldn't take much. But still, waking up in bed with an obviously rather attractive woman made his headache seem a little less severe.

That was until he recognized whose naked body was entwined with his own, sound asleep, warm, but oh-so-wrong!

"Vala!" The outburst was just as much a vocalization of his surprise as it was an attempt to wake the woman.

**A/N: What's Cam going to do now? What does Vala have to say? Will either remember just exactly what happened?**

**A/N2: Apologies for brevity of first part. Will try harder…**


	2. Places You Don't Wanna Go

**Author's note: Okay, here's the deal. This may not be the least bit in character and I apologize if it isn't. I'm not all that familiar with Cam and Vala, only recently discovering that I like them, and that I like them together. This was really just a way for me to play with them. I hope it is a little entertaining to someone else as well…**

**Awakenings**

Places You Don't Wanna Go

"Mmm," the sleeping beauty moaned. "Just a little bit longer..."

She cuddled into his chest, nuzzling his bare skin with her delicate nose, rubbing her soft cheek against him. Her hand kneaded the flesh around his collar bone, sending chills through his body.

"Vala!" he hissed violently. He grabbed the hand that had begun to absently stroke his bare chest, driving his already muddled mind to distraction.

This time the utterance of her name succeeded in rousing her from sleep. Her large eyes opened wide, and when she looked up into his face she started with the recognition. The shock was unmistakable, flashing across her face like a bolt of lightening, and vanishing just as quickly. It was replaced by the typical, confident, never-phased-by-any-setback façade he had come to know so well. Not to mention be severely annoyed by on multiple occasions. The question was…_Was he going to call her on it?_

"Cam?" Vala let his name slip off her lips like it was the most natural thing in the world, like she was born to speak it, like she hadn't referred to him primarily by his family name since they'd first met. "Fancy meeting you here."

_Right, sister. Like you're any more in control of this situation than I am_. His head screamed at him to give up and return to unconsciousness once more. But he most definitely couldn't do that now. This was a crisis waiting to happen, already happened, was happening…all of the above.

"What the hell happened?" He asked her, hoping things weren't as they seemed, that perhaps she remembered more than he did, and that memory included some very good excuse for them being naked in bed together besides the conclusion his mind had already jumped to. Maybe their clothes had gotten soaking wet and they had to take them off and huddle for warmth. Maybe someone drugged them as part of a cruel prank. _And maybe some dog had eaten their homework…_

Lame excuses, all of them.

"Didn't your father ever explain to you?" she asked him, shifting against him so that she could see his face better. The movement of her smooth, warm skin against his body raised the hairs on the back of his neck and hastened the blood as it flowed through his veins and pounded at his aching temples. "Well, I suppose I'm as good as anyone to tell you the facts of life. You see, my dear lieutenant-colonel, when a man and a woman have certain feelings for each other, or in this case, too much what was it called? Oh yes, Vod-ka…oh! And takeela…and beer and lots and lots of wine…

"Vala" he growled her name in frustration for the third time that morning. Little to his knowledge, it was the twenty-second utterance of her name on his part in the past twenty-four hours, the loudest of which occurred at 3 am that morning but was not heard over the music and chatter filling the large house.

"What?" she asked in her 'innocent' voice. It was an obvious cover. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on inside her head, not that he could ever understand _that_, even without what had to be the worst headache anyone had experienced in the entire history of the galaxy.

Vala couldn't see his face clearly, and it bothered her, although the gruffness and annoyance in his voice was enough to let her know what he thought about the situation. It had come to her as a bit of a shock, but she had most definitely been in similar circumstances before. _Waking up with little memory of previous events alongside naked-but-not-unattractive man. Yup. Definitely been here before._ _Did this make 17 or 18 times? _

But this was different. This wasn't supposed to happen anymore, not that it was an entirely bad experience. She wasn't the same Vala that did those things, or got caught up in those situations. She had joined the Earthlings to try to become a, well, _better_ person. Not that she didn't like who she was before. She just wanted something more stable out of life, namely friends, people she could count on…_Would this incident cost her one such person?_

If only she could see his face, his eyes, then she would know. She shifted, rolling off from him onto her side, supporting her head with her arm. He looked pissed, but Vala couldn't tell if it was entirely at-

"Oh, god! Don't do that!" Cameron exclaimed, closing his eyes tight. Not that the sight of her exposed, shapely breasts was unattractive…But it was most definitely unwelcome. This situation needed to end.

"Why?" Vala teased, but was slightly hurt by his reaction. "Is there something wrong with the way I look?"

"No," Cam replied, realizing how his reaction was taken, still trying to keep his eyes closed. "No. You look…It's just-"

"Then why are your eyes closed?!" she probed, putting on the air of being offended. If she could fool him into thinking he had hurt her feelings, forced him into concentrating on making amends to her, then he couldn't get angry at her for what had happened-well, what seemed most likely to have happened-the previous night.

"We shouldn't see each other like this," he supplied desperately. "We're team mates and whatnot."

"But I've seen Daniel naked and we're-"

"Whoa, whoa! Stop right there!" he cut her off. "One: I do not need that mental image right now. And Two: NO!"

"But you said-"

"NO!"

"I just thought that the circumstances were similar and-"

"NO WAY!"

"And it might have some bearing-"

"I'm not listening!"

He began humming some tune unfamiliar to Vala, who allowed herself some small sigh of relief. She had him on the defensive, thinking about other things than yelling at her for her promiscuity.

Cameron continued humming the theme to Bonanza for several minutes even after he felt the mattress move and a wave of cold air turn his skin to gooseflesh, informing him that Vala had left the bed. He finally stopped and risked opening his eyes a crack, hoping that it was enough time for her to dress. The relief that her naked body was no longer teasing his fatigued mind lasted only a moment before he sat bolt upright in bed, barely keeping himself from leaping out of it.

Instead of doing the sensible thing, and putting on the little black dress she had adorned the previous day, Vala had used his white dress shirt to cover her curvaceous and supple figure. Unfortunately for Cameron's mixed-up mind, her long slender legs were still mostly exposed, drawing his attention in particular to where the hem of his shirt caressed her upper thigh as she stood before him fidgeting with the rumpled garment in an uncharacteristically shy manner.

"What are you wearing?!" Cam asked, as if he hadn't recognized his shirt immediately.

"Your shirt," Vala said, regaining her confidence in a reaction to his scolding voice. "And I think it rather becomes me, actually."

She spun around, flashing him just a taste of her smooth, round bottom. The images that popped into his head could have been memories or dreams, maybe even fantasies, but either way they caused his heart to beat faster and his breath to catch in his throat. This was too much to handle at the moment.

"Wait, stop!" he barked an order at her, causing her to freeze instantaneously, her back to him. "Stay right there."

"What is it?!" She asked nervously. There was nothing worse than bugs, particularly Earth bugs. You never knew where you stood with them. In the rest of the galaxy, it was easy enough. Big bugs with scary fangs were bad. Little glowing, happy bugs were (for the most part) friendly or at least decent enough to let you know right away if they weren't. But there seemed to be no such rules with Earth insects… "Is it a…_spider_?"

"No," Cam replied, hurrying out of bed and grabbing his pants where they lay haphazardly in a pile in the corner of the room. "But don't move!"

He threw them on and zipped them up as fast as he could, bar injury. Being at least half-dressed made him feel that much better. There was nothing worse than facing an unsettling situation naked and vulnerable.

"Don't tell me it's one of those, what was it called, _camule_ spiders," Vala said still panicking about why he had told her to stand still. "Because I saw something about them on the television. There was this man who fell asleep outside and woke up the next morning with half of his face gone! And he didn't even feel the spider gnawing away at his face because of the venom that it secre-"

"Vala, there's no spider," he said, beginning to laugh. Lord, he needed to laugh at the bizarre situation he was in, or else his head might explode. "_Camel_ spiders don't even live in this part of the world."

"Well, how was I to know that?!" She retorted, still unnerved by the idea of a hairy, eight-legged insect feasting on her face while she slept peacefully dreaming of gold and jewels and scantily-clad menservants. Something dawned on her, pushing nightmares of flesh eating spiders from her fretting mind. "Hey! Why'd you tell me to stand still then?"

Vala spun around to face her lov-_uh_…Mitchell. He was standing a few feet in front of her, adorning his pants but nothing else, besides a wide grin, which changed to a frown as he noticed her eyes traveling over the entirety of him. She let a slow breath out, as her mind drank in his figure. It wasn't as if she hadn't noticed his rather alluring physique before, but the thought that she might have _had_ him…

She had to get out of there! Her thoughts were going places she was certain would only make things worse. She whipped around and made a mad dash for the door.

**A/N: So yeah…There you go…This chapter was longer as promised, but rather pointless now that I think about it. But I had fun writing it (in a block with a whole bunch more that probably needs rethinking). I wanted to post this simultaneously with the next section of its companion, but I got slightly stuck with it, so I decided to post this before it stagnated.**

**A/N2: Questions I had while writing this (result of my snap assumptions/being pulled along by narrative, followed by subsequent severe self-doubt): 1. Is Mitchell's rank actually that of lieutenant-colonel? 2. Is my assumption of Vala's motivations for joining the team erroneous or way obvious/already have been stated in the show and I'm just not "in the know"? 3. I know there was comment that Vala handles her liquor very well, but would she still get plastered if she drank enough of our weak 'earth' alcohol? 4. Am I portraying Cam as too childish? 5. Would Vala be afraid of spiders? 6. Where the hell am I going with this?!**


	3. Talk Is Cheap

**Author's note: Okay, here we go again…Not so sure how I feel about this, strength/portrayal of characters, yadda yadda yadda. I actually wrote a fair portion of this in that one initial sitting that encompassed the first two chapters of this fic. Is it obvious where I left off and picked up again?**

**Awakenings**

Talk Is Cheap

"Whoa-hoa I don't think so!" He called out after her, chasing her down. Unfortunately for Vala, he was quick. She felt him as much as heard him run up behind her, bracing herself for the impact, hoping that she could squeeze out of the crack in the door she managed to open before he collided with her, probably grinding her into the heavy wooden barrier. But it never came.

Oh, there was an impact, but not of the variety she had expected. His hand hit the door above her head as she pulled it open, putting a swift end to her desperate bid for escape by making her flinch while simultaneously slamming the door closed again. And she indeed felt herself trapped between his body and the bulk of the door, but not smothered or pinned as she had expected, and not even bruised. She knew that Cameron had quick reflexes, but she hadn't pegged him as having the kind of control he had shown in eliminating his momentum and not colliding with her much smaller frame. She had expected to be crushed.

Vala allowed herself a sigh of relief before turning to confront him, with what she hoped was her toughest 'I'm very angry' face. Instead her brow knitted in surprise and confusion when she saw him smiling at her while panting and trying to catch his breath after the brief but intense sprint.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a quick one?" he scolded her in a teasingly light manner, shaking a finger at her.

"Only those out to get me," she replied, still perplexed by his actions. "Is there a reason why you're not letting me leave this room?"

Cam took a few more seconds to return his breathing to normal. He didn't usually get winded this quickly, but he had no clue as to what kind of strain he had placed on his body the previous night, nor how much alcohol his system was trying to process, slowing him down.

"You can't go out there dressed like that," he informed her. "If the others see you…"

"Has anyone ever told you you're paranoid?"

"Only those out to get me."

"Ha. Ha." Vala rolled her eyes. This was becoming annoying. "Who cares anyway? So what if we had sex?! We're two adults. It happens all the time!"

"It's just not-"

"_Appropriate_," she quoted the most irritating phrase she had ever encountered. She continued to talk over his objections. "Blah, blah, blah! You know what?! I don't believe we had sex."

"Oh, really?" Cam was intrigued to hear this theory. There wasn't much else that could explain why two people ended up in bed naked together, but at the moment he was willing to entertain any notion contrary to the blatantly obvious fact he didn't want to face.

"Yes," Vala asserted confidently. "Because you are _way_ too tense for a man who just spent the night in my bed!"

"Great!" Cam snapped back. "'Cause that logic's not specious at all!"

"Will you lighten up, military boy!" She yelled, then realizing the attention their argument was bound to draw, switched to a heated whisper. "This is only a big deal if we make it into a big deal, like you are right now. If we say nothing, act like everything is perfectly fine…no one is going to care."

"What about Jackson?" Cam hissed, furious with the woman who had refused to listen to him, who had accused him of being uptight. "Won't he care?"

"What are you talking about?" Vala had a good idea where he was taking this, but wanted to give him a chance to rethink before he said something that he would regret, even if it required her help for him to realize his remorse.

"I thought you were his girl." He regretted the words almost as immediately as they came out of his stupid mouth. They would only exacerbate the confrontation, but he had wanted to hurt her. For what reason exactly, Cam wasn't sure. But by the look of things, he was to be the one who got hurt.

"I am no one's _girl._" The words were uttered with such cold calmness, with an annunciation that cut through the suddenly oppressively silent air like the sharpest of daggers. It pierced his tough skin, causing his insides to form a knot deep in his chest. He found it difficult to meet her eyes, and when he did, impossible to look away.

He had hurt her and she was furious.

She could, _had_, tolerated many remarks that those in politer circles would consider shameful, and many far more degrading unspoken ones. In the past she had taken most, if not all, of them with nonchalance, even flirtatious acceptance. But coming from him, it hurt. Cameron Mitchell was a man Vala had come to respect a great deal, despite how much she liked to tease and mock him. That made every time she failed to see that respect returned to her all the more painful. _And to think she had spent the night in such an intimate manner with a man who thought so poorly of her…_

The old Vala wouldn't have cared. But that was entirely the problem. She just didn't know who she was anymore. She was trying to be a better person, but what did that mean anyway? It had meant joining the SGC, trying to fit in, trying to do good, being selfless. But what would a better-person-than-Vala-had-been do in this situation? She didn't even have a clue what façade to put on, so instead she wore none.

She walked away from him, sat on the edge of the bed, the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. Cam was shocked by her apparent retreat. He had been prepared for the most severe chastising, beating, or assault of feminine rage ever. But this was far worse. He had really hurt her. And in the tradition of his typical reaction to extreme discomfort arising out of interpersonal conflict, Cam made a hasty apology and attempted to change the subject.

"I'm sorry, Vala," he said, kneeling before her in what he hoped was an entirely repentant and non-hostile manner. "I was just worried that we might inadvertently alienate Daniel if he sees you in my shirt, finds out that we..." _Lies._ He had wanted to hurt her. _Well, you got what you were after…happy now, Cam? _Sometimes, he was so stupid!

She finally looked at him, wiping the moisture from her face with the palms of her hands. Taking a moment to compose herself, she crammed her emotional turmoil away into a small dark place deep inside. _This isn't the time for an identity crisis. There are other issues to deal with._

"I don't know where they are," she said meekly. He could barely make out the statement. When he did, he still didn't understand, giving her a puzzled look. "My clothes. I couldn't find them. That's why I put this on. I figured with your reaction, it was better than the alternative."

"Okay," Cameron finally conceded. This wasn't her fault. He shouldn't be treating her as badly as he had. "We'll just have to look harder. They couldn't have gone too far."

He ducked down from where he was kneeling, to look beneath the large, ornate bed. He had to admit, as far as strange places in which to wake up , the fancy room in the large fancy senator's house that had been lent for the O'Neill's wedding wasn't the worst by far.

"Anything?" Vala inquired, leaning over the edge of the bed, getting a clear view of Cam's firm ass sticking out from under it, blushing at her consideration of it and leaning back.

"Nope." The answer was followed with an exasperated sigh. Then his head popped up momentarily before he was back down lying flat on the floor. "You look high. I'll look low."

It was easier to perform an intense search of the room than peruse his memory for the answer for several reasons. Firstly, with such a hangover, he had lost whatever easy access to memories he usually enjoyed. Secondly, what he could conjure up with great difficult only made him severely uncomfortable, especially with a half-naked Vala still in the same room. Thirdly, it gave them both something to do besides arguing.

He crawled across the floor to get a better view under some vanity-like piece of furniture, but to no avail.

"Ah-ha!"

"Find something?" Cam inquired pushing himself off the floor, finding the direction from which the cry of triumph had come. Vala was standing on the bed, bouncing slightly in her excitement. She leapt off from it and bounded across the room. And with a more-than-slight hop, she reached up and pulled something off the top of the rather tall, rather elaborately carved dresser.

"My panties!" she squealed with joy, before immediately bending over and slipping one leg than the other into them.

Cameron quickly turned away before she finished wriggling into the black lacy things. But the damage was done, as his thoughts flowed from one image of her bare flesh to the next. He remembered ravenously removing the garment that had barred him from her hips, her body, and throwing it carelessly over his shoulder.

Before his memory could carry him further into the events that had transpired the previous night, Cam shook himself out of the recollection and returned his attention to the search for Vala's clothing. Of all the possible insane situations he had ever considered himself getting into, a number of which he had contemplated as a result of attending this particular wedding and reception, this, _this _had never come up, and was by far the most awkward, bizarre, and potentially painful.

After crawling all over the rather lovely hardwood floor, Cameron finally gave up on the search for the other articles that were MIA. Feeling an ache in his back he moved to sit up, hitting his head on the bedside table he had just been looking under.

He caught the lamp and steadied it before it could plummet from the delicate wooden table. _Still got it!_ He marveled at the astuteness of his reflexes despite the moderate-to-severe status of his hangover, but only for a moment before he noticed something out of place draped over the lampshade.

"Uh, Vala, I believe this is yours," he said picking the delicate article of clothing off the formerly imperiled appliance and holding it out to her.

"My bra!" she exclaimed, taking the lacy garment that matched the one she had just finished putting on a few minutes before. "Yay!"

Things were starting to go her way…Well, at least, maybe, if she pretended they were, then she wouldn't feel so down. And maybe, just maybe, she could get Mitchell to lighten up a little. Knowing he'd freak out if she simply shed his shirt in front of him to put her bra back on, she turned her back to him to adorn her earnestly sought-after and rather sexy (if she said so herself) undergarment.

Cameron continued to survey the part of the room he was facing while she dressed behind him. There was no sign of the most vital piece, her actual dress. He sighed. So much for pretending it never happened, or getting out of there without incident…

"I'm decent," Vala announced. "But I don't see my dress anywhere."

"Neither do I," he confirmed, turning around with a sigh.

"Guess we're just going to have to, how does it go? 'bite the bullet'," she said cheerfully.

"Vala, this is _not _funny," he growled, fighting the urge to grab her by the arms and shake some sense into her. "But I guess you're right. There's not much else we can do…" Glancing around, he found the wife-beater he had worn under his dress shirt the previous day. "Unless you wanna try to make a discreet exit?" He picked it up and pulled it over his head. "Didn't think so…"

He made his way over to the door with Vala hot on his heals. She was desperate to get out of the room, and frankly away from him. Not that she would've minded waking up in bed with such an attractive man under normal circumstances, but he was horribly trying on her patience and far too uptight for her tastes.

No sooner had Cameron begun to open the door when he hurriedly pulled it almost entirely shut again, and Vala found herself roughly shoved back into the room a few feet.

"Hey! What the hell-" she began to berate the man for the seemingly unprovoked assault. His hand flailed at her, urging her to be silent.

"Oh hey, Teal'c," Cameron greeted his friend and team mate through the four inch crack between the frame and the door. He had never been more anxious in his life, afraid that the stoic man would find out about Vala, and think poorly of him. "How'd you sleep?"

"Very well, Cameron Mitchell," he replied placidly.

"That's good to hear, bud-" Cameron said, trying to end the conversation and maintain control of the door as Vala desperately pulled at it and him.

Teal'c, however, wasn't finished. He knew precisely what was going on, found it rather amusing, and thought he'd see if he could make the situation just a little more interesting.

"But not at first," he added placidly.

"Oh, really? That's too bad," the younger man replied absently. The door shuddered slightly, the visible muscles and tendons of his arm pulsed, and there was the sound of hushed swearing from behind it.

"Yes," Teal'c continued. "After the screaming ceased, I found it quite easy to acquire the rest I needed."

The hidden struggle seemed to stop and Cameron turned his entire focus upon the large man standing in the hall, reservedly amused, with raised eyebrow.

"Wh-what screaming?" Cameron asked. "I didn't hear anything."

"That is most unusual," Teal'c replied. "It appeared to be emerging from somewhere in this vicinity."

Cameron knew he looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but there was nothing he could do about it. This went beyond 'busted.' There was no way knowing how much Teal'c knew, but he was totally at a loss for how to react.

His distraction gave Vala the opportunity she needed to wrench the door out of his control, which gave her a brief sense of satisfaction over her success which was almost immediately replaced with shock to match Cameron's own.

But really, what had she expected? He _had_ been talking to someone. However, unlike her frozen companion, Vala was skilled in the recovery and saving of face. She put on a cheerful smile and greeted the _near-smiling? _Jaffa.

"Good morning, Teal'c," she said elbowing and pushing past Cameron to stand half in the doorway and half in the hall.

"Greetings, Vala MalDoran," Teal'c responded, bowing his head slightly.

She anticipated the awkward silence that had been building, heading it off with her specialty, inane chatter.

"How'd you sleep, Teal'c? I slept like a ghoald in a sarcophagus, and woke up just as refreshed. It must be these Earth drinks, they just don't pack the same punch as the stuff I'm used to…"she glanced briefly and meaningfully at Cameron. "…although they do seem to alter your sense of perception quite sufficiently."

When no one responded, she continued. "Anyway, I'm starved! Absolutely famished. Is there anything to eat around this fancy place?"

She looked to the others to see if they had kept up. Cameron was scowling at her, having finally caught on to the insult she had thrown in the middle of her rambling.

Teal'c said, "I believe Samantha Carter is preparing breakfast."

"Sounds great!" she exclaimed, grabbing Mitchell's arm and tugging on it, pulling him down the hall.

"Fine time to freeze up," she hissed into his ear. "I thought you didn't want anyone to find out we spent the night in the same bed."

"If you hadn't been fighting with me over the door, Teal'c wouldn't've known any better."

"Well, I think he knew anyway."

"Only because, apparently, you're a screamer!"

This caused her to take in a sharp breath, followed with. "What do you remember?! Tell me right this instant!"

"Nothing," he countered. "I don't remember a damn thing because _someone_…" he trailed off as he realized something.

"What?!" Vala continued the argument. "What were you going to accuse me of _now_?! You know I don't like this anym-"

"Shut up," he ordered her gently before grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him back to where Teal'c was standing patiently in front of the bedroom door from which they had emerged.

"Uh, which way is it?" Cam asked him. This godforsaken mansion was like a maze.

Teal'c indicated that they needed to go in the opposite direction than they had previously and distractedly pursued before. He let them go ahead of him, before placing his hands behind his back and following the bickering pair with an ever-so-slight smile teasing his lips.

**A/N: Can you guess where Vala's dress is? I know. HAHAHA…oh wait, that makes sense, considering I am the one that is writing this. My bad.**

**A/N 2: Please feel free to point out any inconsistencies in character, and please, please explain them to me. I'm still not all that familiar with Cam and Vala, and probably too familiar with the other characters to be able to portray them (if that makes sense). Then again, this whole incident and plotline is probably an inconsistency in character, but I like to play, okay?**

**A/N 3: My worries about this project (not that it's really a big deal or anything, it's just for fun) 1. Would it be too much for both Vala and Cam, and Elizabeth and John to end up together in the end? (too gushy/cliché) I know it doesn't bother me no matter how many stories I read, but as a writer, it feels a little repetitive. 2. How repetitive is this going to seem, with all of the thinking and talking that I need to/will be writing? 3. Is this my strange sense of humor, or am I just lame and stupid? 4. I am way too wordy.**

**A/N 4: And finally, if you've made it this far, you get 555 points and a llama. His name is Ted ::pets llama:: If you've just scrolled to the bottom, being fed up with my writing but not just clicking the options you have at the top for some bizarre reason, you receive nothing ::blows raspberry and wishes that she went to bed earlier, because what little sanity remained is now gone::**


	4. Everything Is Fine Really!

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Stargate franchise or its characters… (I seem to have been forgetting this…not the part about not owning it, the part about putting this statement in).**

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to get the next bit of this up…if it makes you feel better it was in part because I was distracted by writing the final bit for this fic, which should appear in another couple chapters…**

**This chapter overlaps/will overlap with the equivalent of its SGA counterpart, just FYI, if you read both, some material will seem similar (although I've tried to vary the narrative).**

**Awakenings**

Everything is Fine…Really!

The key was to be confident. These people were experts. They could smell fear, probably taste it too…

Vala put on the biggest 'Everything is perfectly fine' smile she was capable of as she walked into the kitchen, with a cheerful "Good Morning."

She willed the aura around her to scream-well, not scream, that would cause problems-to state (yes that's better) in a casual yet forceful manner that 'everything is fine.' _The question on your minds shouldn't be '_why is Vala wearing a man's shirt, and not much else' _but '_why wouldn't Vala be wearing a man's shirt and not much else?_' because that is a perfectly reasonable, normal thing to be occurring…_

Unfortunately, all the positive and forceful thinking in the world wasn't going to stop the shock that instantly spread through the room that had previously been bustling with the busyness of people breakfasting.

Silence spread like ripples in a pond. (…except for the clattering of silverware and creaking of jaws as they dropped).

And Cameron Mitchell felt like the stone that had been carelessly chucked into the murky depths.

_No, that isn't right_, he mused to himself as he watched Vala take a seat at the table and help herself to various breakfast items as if the eyes of everyone in the room weren't following her, only breaking away to make quick and piercing darts in his direction. He felt more like a stone that had been skipped, bouncing off the surprisingly dense surface several times to the amusement of the person who had chucked him, only to then be abandoned to the water's cold embrace.

He glared at the back of Vala's head as she stuffed her face with eggs. If anyone would be heartless enough to skip him across a lake, it'd be her!

Cameron's brooding thoughts were disrupted as Teal'C pushed past him with a polite "Excuse me, Colonel Mitchell" to join the others, well, currently only Vala, in eating breakfast.

They were still quietly staring, but at least this time, it was off into random directions in space. _So, it had moved onto the uncomfortable stage in which the initial shock has worn off but eye contact isn't being made in case something unpleasant needs to be said, and still, nobody knows what to think or say?_

He may have been able to identify what thoughts were more than likely running through his friends and colleagues' heads, but Cameron had no clue what to do or say himself. Vala had seemed to go for the 'ignore it and it will all be okay' tactic…

_Damn!_ He cursed silently in his head as he accidentally caught Sam's gaze. It was bewildered and questioning, and even if it wasn't intended, it felt accusatory. Cam couldn't face that now. He couldn't even face himself yet. So he shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner and went about fixing his own plate.

Maybe he was reading too much into this, anyway. Just because Vala was wearing a man's shirt and he wasn't wearing his, and everyone else seemed to have their own ones accounted for, didn't mean it was his. His friends were smart people. They wouldn't leap to conclusions, would they?

He tried to read their faces as they went back to breakfasting. It was no longer a deathly silence, but there was still a tension in the air. He hoped it was from unspoken jokes, taunts, or innuendos, not from anything to serious, such as disapproval.

Maybe it was disapproval. No one was making direct eye contact with either him or Vala, and they were all trying to sneak glances laden heavy with meaning at one another. But their friends, _their friends_ wouldn't jump to conclusions when they had said nothing, done nothing to insinuate that Vala and he had woken up in the same bed. They just wouldn't, with so little evidence!

Yes, Cameron knew them, and knew they wouldn't do such a thing! That settled it, he could see to the cries of his hungry stomach.

He made the mistake of going after a piece of toast.

As he reached past Vala to retrieve the breakfast staple, his hand accidentally brushed against hers, causing them both to jump noticeably. He snapped his head around, only to catch the others hastily looking away or busying themselves with various falsities.

Landry rustled the paper in an obvious 'I'm reading' way. Sam made to look like she was cleaning up something on the counter. Jack was intently studying the egg on his plate in a way only he could. Teal'c was unabashedly still looking amused over the situation as he serenely went about consuming his meal. And Daniel…

Cam started again at the look Daniel was giving him before he quickly turned away. He _really _didn't need this! He hadn't _wanted _this to happen! Angry at his current lot in the world, he took it out on his breakfast, passionately stabbing the suddenly extremely offensive scrambled unborn fowl.

Pretending that everything was fine really wasn't working out so well, Vala decided. First, everyone had stared in such a manner she hadn't received since that time she had blended in with the Rexilian Traveling Circus to hide from the authorities, performing amazing acts with flaming… Well, that wasn't important. The point was, that neither she nor Mitchell deserved to be stared at in such a manner, or given the silent treatment for their choice (or lack of choices, in her case) of attire.

And now, he too was adding to the tension, brooding over his food, not supporting her or commiserating with her over their predicament in the least. They _were_ in this together, after all, even if they didn't want to be.

Well, she'd put an end to this nonsense!

"Don't you want to know why I'm wearing Cam's shirt?" Vala cut through the silence, trying not to sound desperate or frustrated.

Like when they had first entered the room, everything seemed to freeze for a moment before all eyes were locked on her. She could sense the silent yet profuse internal swearing of Cameron Mitchell sitting but a few feet away without even looking in his direction, but she pressed on.

"Well?"

Sam blushed for the apparently shameless woman. Landry gave her a 'really shouldn't and _don't _want to know this' look, while Daniel stared at her in an accusatory manner and Teal'c continued to adorn his semi-smirk. Vala didn't really know Jack O'Neill that well, but she was fairly certain the blank 'I am too stupid to follow what's going on' face he was giving her was just a façade for a clever mind that had probably not only reached conclusions but was considering various jokes that could be derived from them in the future, after the uneasy tension had dissipated. Perhaps, he was trying to spare her…or himself from having to be involved in the awkward conversation.

Apparently, there would be no verbal response from anyone present.

"I couldn't find my dress this morning and Mitchell was kind enough to lend me his shirt to avoid an awkward situation," she explained without actually lying, fighting the urge to crack under the extreme pressure building in the kitchen, the tension of being under so much scrutiny, and for once from people she had come to consider friends.

_Avoid an awkward situation? Then what the hell was this?!!_ Daniel fumed. He wasn't exactly sure why this was so upsetting to him. Well, maybe that was a lie. He hadn't exactly embraced Vala's affections, but when they had waned he had found himself missing the fact that someone had so shamelessly fawned over him. And now it appeared that she had simply switched the focus of such affections instead of ridding herself of the desire to pander.

"How did you lose your dress to begin with?!" Daniel snapped, unable to control the unexpected jealous fury. He felt briefly guilty over the realization that he only seemed to want her, to think of her as his, because she may have been with another man. Otherwise, normally, he could care less whether she was pining for him or not.

"As you know, I prefer to sleep in the nude," Vala replied scathingly, no longer caring whether the tension in the room remained unbearably high. Cam choked on the coffee he had busied himself with drinking to avoid picking a fight with Vala for her lack of tact. It seemed that Daniel had beaten him to entering into a combat of words and will with their supposed, presently affronted-feeling, friend.

The silence became even harsher as every person in the kitchen felt the worst unease they had ever known, which was saying a lot for seasoned veterans of wars on the galactic scale. Cameron tried to hold his breath and calm himself, afraid that if the pressure inside the room increased any further, the incandescent lights might implode, or even more unpleasantly, his ear drums. But then, maybe, he'd pass out and no longer have to deal with the immense embarrassment.

A new voice broke the silence this time around, causing everyone to visibly sigh in relief.

"Just wanted to let you know that we're heading out," John Sheppard said, as he and Elizabeth Weir appeared in the kitchen. They looked around at the kitchen's occupants in bemusement, recognizing that they had interrupted something that appeared to have disturbed their friends and colleagues.

"Oh, already?" Sam asked, recovering from the horribly awkward and disquieting situation. She let the sincere disappointment show through in her voice. She had really just started to get acquainted with the leaders of Atlantis beyond a passing yet genial familiarity.

"Actually, we should be leaving, soon, too," Jack reminded her of the flight they had to catch for their honeymoon.

"We can't leave the house like this!" She protested, glad that the subject had so completely and efficiently shifted. "It's a mess!"

"That's what Fred is paying the servants for!" he retorted. Landry rolled his eyes and Elizabeth appeared to suppress laughter over the interplay between the newlyweds, but Vala was still too infuriated by the men in her life to appreciate the light moment.

"The _Daedalus_ leaves for Atlantis this afternoon," the rather attractive yet disheveled man supplied. Vala could sense that he was as tense as Cam had been that morning, and as anxious as she was to leave whatever awkward situations that had arose behind. The woman with charming words and warm eyes, Elizabeth Weir, took this as a cue to say goodbye.

Pleasantries were exchanged by all, although less-than-enthusiastically by those who had been mid-argument when the pair had appeared.

"Has anyone seen our shoes?" John asked. He looked even more disturbed than before, if that was at all possible.

_Or my underwear?_ Elizabeth thought bitterly.

_Or my dress? _Vala added silently to John's inquiry.

_Or my willpower? _Cam thought.

_Or my self-respect for that matter?_

All four of those who had rude awakenings that morning had the same resentful thought in unison. However, they didn't know just how similar they all felt at that particular moment.

Apparently, the couple rightly took the silence as a negative response, for with another quick "thanks, congratulations, goodbye" they departed, to leave the rest of the kitchen's occupants to endure a rather traumatically solemn breakfast.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The remainder of what was SG-1 and Landry stood in front of the large house and waved as their friends turned newlyweds' limo drove away down the dusty road. A truce had seemed to be called for the sake of their friends', specifically Sam's feelings. They knew she wouldn't be comfortably leaving them knowing such an upsetting and primarily unspoken argument hung in the air.

Pushing thoughts of who he may or may not have wronged, been wronged by, or felt wronged in any way shape or form on account of what had happened the previous night, Cameron tried to enjoy the happy moment of two people in the start of their lives together.

For some odd reason, Cameron had the urge to look up at the bright morning sky and survey his surroundings.

Something flittering in the breeze caught his eye, something about the size of a little black dress, such as the one Vala had been adorning the previous day and was sans today. But it couldn't be, because, how in the hell did it wind up on top of a rather large shrub in front of the senator's summer home?

Just because that window a few feet above it was wide open, and what Cam could see of the interior was similar to the room he had woken up in that morning didn't mean…_Aw, Hell!_

He nudged Vala who stopped waving after the departing couple, to give him a dirty look for the harsh, and in her mind, completely uncalled for, jab to the ribs. He nodded his head meaningfully.

"What?!" she asked him, annoyed and confused.

"I think I found your dress," he hissed at her, again indicating that she should look up and to his right with a jerk of his head.

"Oh my…"

**A/N: I really have no idea how I am doing character-wise…but I think I've sort of made them my own, and like them this way… (So point out flaws if you'd like, and I'm sure it would be helpful, but I'm not sure I'll apologize for them.)**


	5. UnComfortable Silences

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Stargate franchise or its characters…**

**Author's note: This was fun if however not in character. I really probably haven't seen enough of these two in order to portray them anywhere near the way they are in the show. And just watched the Peacekeeper Wars again, which I don't think influenced this because I had most of it already written (as well as the last chapter but SH! Don't tell), but probably muddled my ideas about them anyhow. Notice that this inability hasn't stopped me from playing with them…**

**Awakenings**

[UnComfortable Silences

"Raz-berry?" Vala asked with a severe look of concentration scrunching up the features upon her face. After a moment, she gave up and smiled instead. "Well, if it's pie, I'll take it! You know your planet's worth it just for the pi-oww!?"

Rubbing her shin that just received a sharp, unexpected blow, Vala glared at Cameron as he made excuses to the waitress.

"She's not from around here. Her English still needs work." he explained to the obviously over-worked woman giving her what he hoped was a charming smile. He hated it when Vala forgot herself. It wasn't as if anyone would actually believe her…besides crazies. But god knew he had enough of _that_ type of people harassing him upon an almost daily basis without her attracting more! "_Country_, Vala, the term is 'country.'"

The waitress gave the pair an 'I can see that you two don't quite belong here' look, but it was fleeting. This was a diner, after all, and she was used to bizarre people passing through.

"I'll get you that raspberry pie, then, ma'am," she replied indifferently.

"Thank you," Vala said cheerfully, as if the strange exchange had never occurred. But she didn't forget it. Instead she returned the injustice with a measured kick to her "friend's" shin.

Cameron, however, had expected such a move from the dark-hared mercurial beauty and caught her ankle between his own. Vala gave him the most vicious scowl of which she was capable, but he pretended not to notice, instead staring out the window at the lazy street, sipping his cup of coffee.

He glanced back in her direction, easily observing the diner's other occupants over her persistently sinking head as she slouched further and further into the booth-seat, his legs pulling her down by her trapped ankle.

Vala wasn't one to tolerate such treatment for long, so she moved her free foot to trap his right ankle between hers, and placing her hands on the edge of the vinyl-covered seat she attempted to push herself back up, initiating an even greater struggle with the man whom she was currently having numerous conflicted feelings about.

She was stronger than she looked, or just really stubborn, so Cam soon found himself unable to simply passively fight her while pretending that nothing was going on. He decided to try to end the struggle quickly by twisting her ankle and leg sharply to one side.

Vala's grip slipped off the edge of the seat as she found herself flipped face first into the vinyl cushion of the booth. She popped back up as gracefully as she could, quickly glanced around to ascertain whether anyone had witnessed her awkward tumble, then brushing a few strands of hair out of her face, looked to the man who had accosted her. He was smiling. _Damn him._

She stomped her foot down on top of his as silently as possible while glaring at him. He winced, then looked determined as she continued to press down on the vulnerable spot where the top of his ankle. He put his free foot on top of hers, staring her in the eyes, daring her to up the ante.

Defiantly, she met his challenge, putting her other foot on top of his. She felt his bottom foot squirming beneath hers as he succeeded in freeing it to place it on top of her other foot with a triumphant smile.

The situation de-escalated rapidly until the pair was kicking their feet at each other like some small overactive children. Then, they lost control, realizing how entirely insane the frivolous battle was, and began to laugh instead of glare.

The waitress, Irene, plopped the plate with the piece of oozing raspberry pie onto the table with a _thump_ and vague splash of syrupy fruit juices. She managed to utter, "There you go, hon" before she hurried away, eager not to be involved, even as a witness to the childish flirting between the odd pair. She didn't get paid enough to put up with folks like them.

However, there was no need for her to retreat so hastily from their presence, for the interruption had been enough to snap them back to reality, abruptly terminating their game of footsie. Vala suddenly found her slice of pie very interesting while Cameron was engaged by intently studying the contents of his coffee cup.

He glanced up to see her staring at him over a dripping bite of the raspberry pie. Okay, things were weird between them. But they didn't have to be…two friends could play childish games like they just had, sharing a good laugh. It was all perfectly normal. He just had to forget that he had woken up in bed with her that morning, and never try to remember how he had ended up in bed with her. Simple enough. It had never happened. They were still friends and comrades, nothing more, nothing less.

"How's the pie?" he risked asking. It was a simple, benign question, one that a friend would ask another.

She mumbled something over a mouthful of pie, the dark red berry filling staining her lips and sticking to the corners of her mouth. Pushing aside thoughts of removing the smudges with his tongue, Cameron interpreted the response to mean "great."

"Want a taste?" she asked, after swallowing the mouthful, and scooping up another on her fork to offer him.

Cam considered the sweet, gooey looking morsel. It was tempting, especially seeing how much Vala was apparently enjoying the dessert. He _could_ accept the offer. He had done it before. Friends that were close didn't mind about sharing food.

Leaning in, he opened his mouth wide to accept the proffered bite of pie. She placed it delicately on his tongue and he closed his lips around it. When she pulled the fork out clean and the raspberry tart was melting in his mouth, he found himself startled by the way she was looking at him. She seemed to be immensely enjoying _his_ enjoyment of the tasty dessert. It was disturbing. Vala shouldn't be staring at him in that manner.

He closed his eyes, pretending to savor the morsel she had fed him. In actuality, he was avoiding her appreciative gaze. She was altogether too happy and pleased by watching him perform the simple task of consuming the portion of baked good. Normal people weren't so moved by, well, _nothing_. People who were just friends didn't stare longingly at each other over a piece of raspberry pie in a diner in the middle of nowhere.

After Cameron had paid the waitress (being sure to leave a generous tip for the woman who had the misfortune of dealing with a rather out-of-sorts Vala and himself) and they had gotten back on the road, he began to severely mentally kick himself. _What had he done?!_

Okay, so he wasn't so sure about how he ended up sleeping with Vala…but that didn't really stop him from blaming himself. However, he could most definitely chastise himself for giving in to Vala's stupid idea that having a road trip would be fun. Because now he had to drive all the way back to Colorado with Vala and all the uncomfortable tension that came with her.

But it didn't have to be uncomfortable, did it? They had seemed to be getting along perfectly well in the diner, if not behaving a little childishly. But then again, their little games had been on the verge of outright flirtation. Okay, they most definitely had been flirting. But what was wrong with that if they got along well?

_No_. Cam knew the problem with such behavior…he'd never be able to forget what had happened, what he was fighting against remembering…_being with Vala_. Every time she looked at him with anything close to affection, every time she smiled, every time she laughed and her eyes lit up…he'd be thinking about having her as his own, about being the one to make her smile, to make her laugh.

And that would lead to very complicated things.

Cameron Mitchell's life was already complicated enough. He wanted simple. How he longed for simple…sometimes. With Vala, he'd never have simple.

No, what he had to do was keep things simple. When she flirted, he'd have to resist. Eventually, it should get easier, and he won't even consider responding with anything but indifference. He'd forget he'd ever had these thoughts, and hopefully that he had ever found himself in the situation he had with Vala. And she'd forget, too, and learn to accept his coldness without a second thought, and hopefully without insult.

That is the way it would have to be. It was best for both of them…

**A/N: One more chapter to go. Please don't harass me with 'why would Cam not want his life complicated?!' and 'Loving Vala shouldn't be that hard!' etc…because I obviously cannot end this without them figuring things out!**** You're preaching to the choir!**

**A/N 2: This is wholly irrelevant, but the way Daniel does archaeology is really starting to annoy me as of late, which I guess is odd, because he never really did it at all even near correctly to begin with…so ****why over ten years later (most of which I've loved the real stuff, and four years of which I've studied archaeology myself) it starts to bother me, I don't know…I just felt like sharing my frustration. (I am resisting the urge to write a fic in which a character who does real archaeology comes in and kicks all the SGC archaeologists' ass, which is probably only a very small number, because I'm sure Daniel likes a monopoly on his 'intellectual property.') End of rant. (And my apologies for it.)**


	6. Good Morning Again

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****Stargate**** SG-1 or its characters…**

**Author's Note: So, here it is… the last bit (took me ****friggen**** long enough to write this). Anyway, this conclusion is very much influenced by the insistence of **VisualIDentificationZeta**, t****hanks for all the feedback, btw. That goes to everyone who bothered dropping me a note, even if it was just to say "hey! I'm reading this." I appreciate it :-)**

**A/N 2: I've been scolded for the use of ****Vala****/Daniel tag in my summary and have removed it. I did intend to put more about them in the story, but I find Daniel too difficult/boring to write and Mitchell is so much more fun, hence, this…**

**Awakenings**

Good Morning…Again

Vala took a deep breath before knocking upon the door. She was still panicking inside. She wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing. _Hell_, she wasn't sure of anything at all anymore.

But it was too late to change her mind for the millionth time.

The door opened.

"Oh, hey Vala," Cameron greeted her, looking rather unkempt in a t-shirt and pair of loose-fitting grey sweats, as if he had just rolled out of bed.

Vala put on her best face. No matter how many times she tried it, it never actually succeeded in banishing the problem gnawing away at her mind.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully, and then to a much lesser extent, "Can I come in? There's something I want to talk to you about."

The last bit roused Cam's brain from its half-slumber. It was unusually urgent, even for Vala, who could make the biggest deal out of the smallest issue, or vice versa.

He opened the door wider and with a small gesture of his hand, invited her to enter his apartment, which, to her surprise, was as unkempt as he was. He had always seemed like such an uptight man…

After a minute of her staring anxiously about her but avoiding looking at him, who she had claimed to have come to talk to, Cameron decided that he ought to provide some sort of prompting.

"So, what can I do you for?" he asked, confused by her behavior, rubbing the back of his head, perhaps in an endeavor to massage his brain to life.

"Well," Vala began, had brief but loud second thoughts, squelched them, and then continued, "I have I guess what you'd call a 'female problem.'"

"Isn't there someone else you could talk to about 'female problems'?!" he cut her off. Now he was really confused and not all that curious or willing to follow whatever discussion Vala seemed to want to seek out with him, _not_ to that sort of place. "Perhaps someone who _is _female…Sam or Dr. Lam…" _or someone, anyone else but me!_

"Uh, well, you see…" _Youcandothisyoucandothisyoucandothis_ "…it's sort of _your _problem as well."

She finally met his eyes, only to realize he wasn't quite following her meaning. Whether it was because he had just woken up a few minutes ago, or because he was generally dense, or perhaps just acting like he was, she didn't know. But actually getting him to understand without saying it was quite difficult. However, for some reason, Vala felt she couldn't say it outright, like doing so would give it some sort of weight and realism it didn't already have. Although she knew full well that she wasn't imagining her condition. It had been haunting her every thought for a good long while.

"You know how women have cyclic reproductive systems…" she began, unable to remember the word they used in Earth culture for it. "And about once a month-"

"Ugh! Vala, I don't want to hear your period issues! "Cam interjected.

"Yes, that's it! _Period_," Vala responded focusing on logging the word away instead of the difficulty that lay ahead in the conversation she had been debating having, dreading for well over a month now. "I haven't had my _period _since we woke up in bed together after Sam's wedding."

She recoiled instinctively, squeezing her eyes shut, waiting for the barrage of cursing, yelling, or whatever manner of response from him that would doubtlessly be very unpleasant.

Instead, there was nothing. She tentatively opened her eyes to find a complete lack of fury. Only a very shocked, spaced out man stood before her. It was as if he had frozen in time. After a few more moments passed lacking any sort of response, it began to disturb her immensely.

"Say something," she pleaded quietly.

Still nothing.

"Cam, please."

Vacant look.

"Say something!" she said louder in frustration, more forcefully. Yell, holler, swear, curse, even strike her, but not _this. _This only prolonged her suffering, drew out her worry, intensified the stress. It was like the entire couple of months since she had known, really known, debated what to do, found no solace, lied awake at nights, and cried till she had nothing left in her. It was all of that, days upon days of agony, all contained in a few, long moments. And she wanted a reprieve, an answer!

"Oh," came his quiet reply, as he backed shakily into a chair and clumsily fell into it. After a few more excruciating minutes, he added, "You're pregnant, then?"

Vala nodded her head, close to tears. Cameron was supposed to make everything better. He was supposed to be the support she needed, or the antagonist to push her to a decision. A reaction either way would determine her actions for her. The entire lack of one served only to worsen her frustration and confusion.

"I suppose it's silly to ask," he continued, "And I never understood why people always do…until, now, that is…but…_are you_ _sure?_"

She nodded her head again. There hadn't been the sickness that she heard was oft associated with pregnancy. But it wasn't necessary to indicate the change in her body. Nor was the absence of the…_period, _although that definitely helped to confirm her conclusion. She had been able to feel it, not the baby per se. It was too early for that. But the change in her body was almost immediately apparent, within a couple weeks even. So, _was she sure_?

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Have you seen a doctor?" Cameron was sort of running on autopilot through a list of questions that should be asked in such a situation. He was still in too much shock to get to the more significant 'How do I feel about this?' part. However, the 'what do I do?' aspect was fast taking over his brain, threatening to trigger the panic center. Luckily, with lots of training and bizarre, oft dangerous missions offworld (and onworld for that matter), he had shrunk that part of his brain and put it on a slow-release timer. So he was looking forward to small bouts of panic over the next few days, or given the severity of this situation, weeks or months.

"I said I was sure!" she snapped over what she perceived was doubt and an insult. "You think I don't know my own body?! Or that I would _lie_ about this?!"

"That's not what I meant," Cam said, the most animated he had been since receiving the revelation that Vala was pregnant. As she burst into tears, he realized this was no courtesy call 'Hey, by the way, I'm carrying your child.' She had come to him for a reason beyond feeling that he had a right to know about her situation. She _needed_ him.

"Oh, hey, c'mon. It's okay," he tried to coax her.

He got up and walked to where she stood with tears running down her pale cheeks, and rubbed her arms in a comforting manner, before guiding her to sit on the couch. Maybe he had no clue how to deal with the news that there was a child growing inside this sobbing, distraught woman on account of him. But he _could_ deal with said sobbing, distraught woman. He fetched a tissue and handed it to her, to which she replied with a grateful yet strained 'thank you" between sobs.

He crouched at her feet, his hands placed tenderly on her legs rubbing them gently as he had done with her arms before. His eyes searched her face, entranced by her apparently intense emotion, eager to comfort her, and desperate to know what she was feeling, besides obviously horrid enough to be crying.

Her sobbing subsided, and she put the tissue to her nose and blew it in a most comical manner, that had he not been extremely disturbed and distressed at the moment, would have made him laugh and shake his head, or at least roll his eyes and crack a smile.

"Vala," he addressed her, convinced that she was once again capable of holding a conversation, not that he was all that up to one either, particularly one of the nature this was. But he needed to do something, say something, and all he could think of was "I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's not your fault!" she responded, tears still threatening, her cheeks and eyes red with emotional exhaustion. "Well, it _is _your fault, at least partly, but…I'm not blaming you."

"So, you haven't talked to anyone...about…about _this_?" he asked, beginning to realize her need for comfort, the reason for her bursting into tears. "It's been over three months since we…"

She was shaking her head, still looking distraught although the sobs had ceased to wrack her body.

Cameron stared at her. And Vala felt like his eyes could bore right through her, lay her soul bare to him. She squirmed under the gaze, finding herself unable to meet it, and when she finally did, guilt overwhelmed her. He, who had gotten _her _pregnant, making her feel guilty! Maybe she should have told him earlier, told someone else, done something, made some sort of decision,…or at least have faced it. And that was it, wasn't it? She really hadn't faced it. She had been avoiding it, even going to see him had been an act to further defer her own acceptance of her situation, her responsibility in it, to make decisions about it.

"I just didn't know what to do," she said quietly, her voice hoarse from crying and stress, and tears that continued to threaten. "I didn't _want_ to know what to do. I-I couldn't face this. I couldn't face _you. _Then I realized that maybe I could get you to face it for me. I thought that maybe-maybe you could tell me what to do…"

"Christ, Vala!" Cameron responded, perhaps a little too sharply, for her eyes glistened before they spilled their contents over her raw cheeks once again. This time she tried to wipe the tears away silently, receiving what she felt was a chastising she fully deserved. He continued his scolding, although quite a bit less harshly, "I can't make _that _decision for you."

"I know, I know," she said, fully in the throes of a crying fit once more. "I just…"

Once again her words were lost in sobs. And Cam felt his insides twist and tighten in response to seeing her in such distress, not to mention the guilt he felt for her pain. Moving to sit next to her on the sofa, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, and she buried her face into his chest, still weeping uncontrollably.

He felt his shirt grow moist with tears, or god only knew what fluids she was spilling on him, but he didn't care. It was his fault and he had to try to make it right, make her feel better. Rubbing her back, he tried to whisper reassurances into her ear as she wept against him.

"It's okay," he said, not believing it himself. But it was the type of thing you said in this situation. It most definitely wouldn't be 'okay' if she didn't overcome this emotional breakdown. "It'll be okay. Everything's going to be fine."

After neither knew how long of her sobbing and clinging to him and his attempts at soothing her, the tears ceased to flow and the sobs stopped. Vala felt exhausted from the fit, and even though Cam wouldn't probably believe it, he had provided a great deal of solace to her, so rather than pulling away from him in an attempt to compose herself, she shifted around so that she was laying on her side, with her head in his lap facing away from him.

He didn't protest. It was beyond the point in which one could act reserved, try to keep the situation from becoming known, ignoring it, or pretending it didn't exist. He had done something stupid, and then worse still, when his judgment hadn't been impaired, he had treated Vala in such a way that she felt that she couldn't even come to him with the truth. And all he wanted to do now was prove to her that he wasn't such a jerk, like he had been, to treat her right, to take care of her.

Cameron's hand stroked her hair and her cheek. Vala smiled and sighed, closing her eyes, being lulled into a sense of peace. She had never thought he could be so gentle. She still had no clue what she was going to do, was still filled with intense worry, but somehow, it melted away at his touch. Somehow, he made her feel like it was all going to be alright.

"So," he said after a few minutes more had passed in which neither was deeper in thought than being mesmerized by the tender contact between them. "You haven't made any decisions yet?"

_So much for everything being alright! _

Vala pulled away from him, sitting up quickly and wincing at the head rush. It didn't help that the topic had come back around to pointing out her irresponsibleness, that she felt like he was accusing her of something again.

"No I haven't!" she barked at him. "I'm sorry I've been too busy fretting about the situation to make decisions that would get you out of it!"

She looked away from him, embarrassed that she was about to cry yet again. If nothing else, such emotional instability should flush out whatever doubt that might still lie in his mind.

"Vala," he tried to get her to look at him, but she refused. She was furious at what she presumed to be his thoughts about her. Trying to fight reacting in his own frustration, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder her to force her to face him.

She relented, simply because she had no other options. There was nowhere else to go from there. If she stormed out right then, she would be worse off than before. Something had to be resolved, even if the resolution was that he couldn't or wouldn't help her.

Placing a hand on her cheek, he made her look at him. She _was_ furious. He could see it blaze in her eyes, before she realized the tenderness in his own, and it dissipated.

"I want you to know, that no matter what you decide to do, I will support you," Cam told her, entirely sincere, although not entirely certain of what she wanted from him. "I will be there, with you…that is, if you want me to…"

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, smiling, tears again streaking her face, but this time in joy and relief. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. All she wanted was someone to be there for her. Most of her life, she had only depended upon herself, but joining the SGC, living on Earth had shown her how much people really did need each other. And she knew, almost immediately, that being pregnant was one situation she couldn't face alone, although try as she had to convince herself otherwise.

"I was so afraid, so alone," she whispered in his ear as he wrapped his arms around her as well, and rocked her gently as he had done before.

"You don't have to be," he whispered back. It was odd, that although he had most apparently been intimate with Vala before, something he wasn't quite fully capable of remembering, he had never felt more connected to her than at that moment, as he held her close, and vowed to himself that he would take care of her no matter what, that he wanted to do this more than he had wanted to do anything else, and that he could and would take care of this woman for the rest of his life. "Not anymore. Not ever again."

There was something different in the way he spoke to her, the way he held her, that made her pull away from him slightly to look into his face. Her breath caught in her throat. Cameron had never given her such a look before.

Maybe it was just in her head. Maybe there were too many hormones coursing through her veins, making her crazy, making her feel lonely and desperate for someone's attention, _his _attention. Then again, maybe it wasn't the hormones. But whatever the reason, she had never felt the need for the affection or approval of another person so badly in her life.

And there it was, staring back at her from those steady blue eyes.

Vala wasn't shocked when Cam leaned in to kiss her. She had read the intention in his unwavering gaze. But it still overwhelmed her, carried her away. All of her troubles and worries seemed to melt into oblivion while she was in his tender embrace. The only thing that mattered was that Cam cared about her, and was going to take care of her.

Suddenly being pregnant wasn't so frightening. As Cameron cradled her in his arms, Vala found herself growing excited and curious, eager to meet the child of this man, this man who could settle her troubled mind so quickly and easily. Of course, he could also aggravate, mock and tease her until she wanted to strangle him to death with her own two hands…Their child would no doubt have an interesting life.

She pulled out of his embrace slightly to study his face. And she thought that she rather liked him. Yes, this could work after all…

Cameron was slightly surprised and taken aback by the affectionate display as Vala placed a light, tickling kiss on his nose, and followed it with several more on his cheek. As she hugged him close and nuzzled into his neck, he thought that there were far worse women than Vala with which to find himself in this situation. In fact, he rather liked her.

Yes, this could definitely work out…

THE END

**A/N: And they lived happily ever after…or whatever satisfies you. (Personally, I've been playing with their children. One of the reasons why this took so long is that I was distracted by that story, as well as others.)**


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